Showing posts with label hardware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hardware. Show all posts

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Kitchen Cabinet Hardware Installed

Today's biggest goal was to install the Kitchen cabinet hardware. While on a job site last week, I was talking to one of the cabinet installers and he gave me a tip on installing cabinet hardware. He always puts a piece of painter's tape on the cabinet, then measures center/hole lines on that, and drills right through the tape. That way you're not marking up the cabinet, and it's easy to change your mind (for example, for the larger drawers, I first measured for the pulls to be located dead center on the drawer, then we decided they looked better toward the top, so it was easy to change, and we didn't have to worry about cleaning up the old markings). We installed all of the pulls on the top drawers exactly centered, both vertically and horizontally. For the two larger drawers, we located the pulls centered horizontally, and the same distance from the top as the upper drawers. We not only liked the look better, but it'll be more functional.
And here are the same drawers with the new pulls. We also added two pulls to the fake panel in front of the sink. While installing them, R discovered that the panel pops off... which made me excited because that'll make it really easy to turn that useless panel into a handy flip-down drawer for sponges, etc.
I also decided to work on our bedroom door. The whole back hallway will be redone this year... new drywall, ceilings, etc., which will get done at the same time as the stairs and pantry. But I figured that for the time being I could get started on some of the dirty work... such as scraping the paint off of the doors. For Christmas I got a fancy paint scraper... It is good for scraping paint off of anything.. including paint rollers (the curved part of the scraper).
It did a great job! I had tried putty knives, spray paint removers, and a couple other types of scrapers with little lucky. Within an hour I had the door going from to this 
It may not seem like much, but it made a huge difference! I also scraped a bunch of paint off of this door's casing. I figure if I can get the doors in this hall (there are 2 of them) scraped now, then by the time it's warm out (will that ever happen? It's -2 degrees out right now..) I'll be able to take them outside to sand and paint.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Kitchen Cabinet Hardware

Like lighting, choosing cabinet hardware could take years. There are so many companies out there, so many designs, finishes, price ranges... it's overwhelming!
We've been living with "contractor hardware" in our Kitchen for 3 months now (well, for the first month and a half there was nothing at all and you'd scrape up your fingers just trying to get a cabinet open. But almost every time R opens a cabinet he manages to rip the tape and break it.. So they're not really as strong as they used to be (he definitely does not have a gentle touch!). So I was tasked with the job of FINALLY finding us some cabinet hardware. The reason it kept getting put off was because every time I was in Lowe's or Home Depot I'd check out their selection, and never liked anything. I know I want oil-rubbed bronze to match everything else in the house, and Lowe's and HD would have maybe one option. Add to that that I wanted cup pulls for the drawers, and you're really narrowing down your cheap box store options. Whenever I'd look online I'd find tons of beautiful options (think Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware...), but for those beauties you're paying $15 a knob. Totally not in our budget.

But now I was down to the wire. We're having a party in about a week and a half, and while it is obvious the house is no where near being done, for some reason we both feel like we NEED that hardware before the party. It had to happen. So I went on amazon.com and decided to just go with the first 4 options I found and choose one. I got lucky.

I found these cup pulls by Amerock.
Love love love! They're exactly what I wanted... traditional, but not too glopped up with extra lines and details. They don't come in ORB, just a matte black finish, which is okay, because all of the ORB options I found on amazon were too bronze... wouldn't match the faucet and door latches. Amazon Price? $2.18 each. A STEAL! That's even cheaper than the ugly ones I was finding in HD and Lowe's!

The wonderfulness that is amazon provided me with some complementary hardware.. and the knob they suggested is gorgeous!
Also by Amerock, this knob costs a whopping $1.75. I think we can afford that! 

I was shocked at how lucky I was... I guess it's a little early birthday luck sneaking up on me! I figured out how many knobs and pulls I needed (16 knobs, 7 pulls), and dumped everything in my shopping cart, entered in my info, and was presented with the final screen. 

Total Purchase: $43.26
Total Shipping: $67.83
Total: $111.09

Whhhaaaaattt?!?! My shipping is almost DOUBLE the price of the knobs? For shipping tiny little knobs that weigh what a half a pound each?!?!? Unacceptable. I was so happy with my $43.26, but I just could not justify $68 for shipping these tiny things.

So I did what every good internet shopper does... I took the model numbers and did a google search. That's when I found hardware heaven. www.usknobs.com They're a site that claims "warehouse direct prices"... and I tell ya... they're amazing. I found my cup pulls and knobs, FOR CHEAPER THAN AMAZON, and was a happy girl. My final price on usknobs.com, including shipping? $44.77. Heaven :) Oh, and did I mention that they not only shipped today, about 2 hours after my order was submitted, but according to the tracking number they'll be here Friday morning?

Kitchen Hardware Specifics:

Manufacturer: Amerock
Retailer: www.usknobs.com
Model: Allison Metal Finishes Cup Pull (Model BP53010-FB)
Finish: Flat Black
Price: $1.96 each



Manufacturer: Amerock
Retailer: www.usknobs.com
Model: Allison Black 1 1/4" FLT Traditional Knob (Model BP53012-FB)
Finish: Flat Black
Price: $1.22 each